Declutter, Purge & Reorganize

Decluttering may not be your idea of fun, but if you can get past taking those first steps, it can be enjoyable and very satisfying.

Mentally fast forward past the un-fun parts like making all of this decisions about what you do and don’t want to keep, and imagine yourself at the next phase.

My daughter-in-law set up a staging area in her garage and put the items to go through in the middle with items to keep moving to the right and items to purge moving to the left. She even set up a card table as a desk! They are moving out of state for medical school rotations and knew it was cost prohibitive to pay to move all of their stuff.

Now that you’ve opened up all this new space, find other fun ways to show your curated collectibles and household items. For example, try hanging memoriabilia on a decorative pegboard. Add some personality by painting, framing or covering the board in fabric. In the kitchen, consider a magnetized board for cutlery.

To add more storage space in your kitchen, install pull-out drawers in large cabinets or insert a slim pull-out pantry in the space between the wall and your refrigerator. Hang a mug collection with decorative hooks or wine glasses under an upper top cabinet.

Take advantage of unused spaces under the stairs by installing drawers or cabinets. This space can be used to store things like sports equipment, out of season shoes or cleaning supplies, just to name a few options.